Tonight is the big night–the midseason finale and the last Battlestar Galactica for 2008. The episode is called "Revelations," but will it live up to that name? From the previews we have below it looks like it might.
[SPOILERS]

Airing on the Sci-Fi Channel tonight , June 13th at 10 PM (9 Central)

“Revelations” [Season 4 Ep. 10]Synopsis: Rebel Cylons go to extreme measures to draw out the Final Five from the Colonial fleet.

Watch ENTIRE EPISODE online today
Unlike recent weeks of only doing 10 minutes, SciFi.com will be streaming the entire mid-season finale starting every hour, on the hour, between 9AM and 4PM Eastern (CLICK TO WATCH). Also recent episodes of BSG are available online (ad supported) at SciFi.com and Hulu.com

Battlestar news of the week:

:"I’m a Frakkin’ Cylon" (four of the ‘final five’ actors talk about being a Cylon)

At a Wednesday-night screening of this week’s episode, Moore explained to TVGuide.com that even though they are currently filming the series’ final scenes, the “practical realities” of post-production — coupled with the formidable end-of-year competition presented by new fall series, baseball and football — places the onset of the final episodes at the start of 2009, at the earliest. “Realistically, there’s no way to get back on the air faster,” he apologetically added.

"Revelations" Hollywood Premiere
On Wednesday there was a star-studded Hollywood preview of tonight’s episode followed by a Q&A session. There is a good spoiler free report on Mojo’s blog with some pictures. AICN has a spoilery report. GalacticaSitrep has a good post that summarizes all the other reporting, with lots of links.

A NOTE ON COMMENTS
The comments section below is for the majority of Trek fans who are also BSG fans. It is to discuss the series, the week’s episode and anything else related to the preview article above. If you are not a fan of the show, then why are you even reading this far down into this post? There are plenty of Trek stories so just move on. Any flaming of BSG will be considered trolling. If you have issues with this site having one BSG column a week, then make a note in the site feedback page.

I can’t wait for this ep, yet I’m terrified of it in that it means we’ll have to wait 6 or 7 months before we get the end. Argh! I have my theories as to how this will all pan out and I’m very anxious to see if I’m right. Possible good news on at least one of the TV movies. I hope they do them all. 3 or 4 movies that will help to build up to the final 10, giving more hints using backstory would be most satisfying.

Now I’m terrified to read any blog anywhere for fear someone has viewed the complete ep and is dying to ruin it for the rest of us. I actually like watching this in real time. I know, I’m so frakkin’ old. Now, get off my lawn you pesky kids!

As with most seasons of BSG, I think this one got off to a shaky start. I’m hoping this episode kicks things back into high gear. Of course, I’m also hoping we don’t have to wait until 2009 for the rest of the series.

For those of you who can’t wait for next year’s half-season to air, allow me to answer two of the biggest questions on your mind about BG:

1) Commander William Adama is the final cyclon. How could his second-in-command and “friend of 40 years” Colonel Ty be a cyclon without him knowing unless he’s one himself? Sure puts a point on the speech he made immediately before the war started, eh?

2) The Galactica fleet is already in the vicinity of Earth. Ever notice those “cameos” of the constellation Orion in the background of many recent space scenes? The only place in the galaxy where those stars appear that way is HERE. And by the way, the Cyclons are already there, too!

In my opinion, the twelve Cyclon models have been carrying out “God’d Will” from the beginning, hearding this controlled group of humans to Earth to reunite the parents with the children and start anew.

I’m glad that Aaron Douglas (Tyrol) also said that he was frakkin pissed when he found out he was a Cylon because it “marginalized” his character. Tyrol was my favorite character, and now I don’t know who is because Tyrol completely lost his sense of self-worth and became this emo, brooding waste of life.

I hope Aaron Douglas was telling the truth when he said that him being a Cylon ends up being cool. It better be or, in my eyes, Battlestar Galactica will have been a giant pile of crap.

Dear God! I drink a lot, recently started wearin’ me an eyepatch, am a ship officer… I could be cyclon too! Oh,no!

Wait… I’m not crappin’ Duracells yet so I think I be OK.

sorry- if I’m wrong, but the evil Picard-like guy is a cylon, righty? Haven’t seen much o’ tha’ new shows so tha’ fans will forgive me inaccuracies… unlike that episode where they mercilessly shot and ate the mechano-doggie cuz it may have been a cylon… or just annoying… hard ta’ figure it all out…

Damn… LOVE that this show keeps me wanting more. Every “finale” leaves me wondering: “Where the hell are they going with the plot now??” It’s been a LONG time since SciFi has been anything more than a formula show:

Heros characters meet alien race A (or the forehead of the week) with large planet-wide problem B and techno-babble solution C. Throw in some good FX, sexual inuendo with humor and the geeks will be happy.

You can usually tell from the teaser where an episode will go. Not with BSG. Keep it going everyone. Make us think. Make us wonder. Make us talk AFTER the episode is done and ponder where you’re going. Going to miss it when all is said and done! Good job!

as endings go ,hat a Horror, all that way and earth pretty much dead, looks like a holocast of the Nuclear variety, its past or future? hard to say. Im not sure I want to know the rest at this point. Its beyond depressing.

#17 – Adama is NOT the final Cylon as he appears in the Last Supper image that has been widely promoted this season. Ron Moore and others have made it very clear… the Cylons we DO know about appear in this image. The final one does not. So start making your list from there.

The is no smoke or fire in the devestation. This is not a recent bit of destruction. This happened a long time ago. As little as six months ago or much longer. Anything that could burn has. Its doubtful that the Cylons attacked…

I love the show, but I am outraged that the producers are going to make us wait six months before the air the final episodes. That is unless of course there is another writers strike then we might wait another 18 months.

#33 – Its not the producers who are holding the show. ITs Sci-Fi Channel. Ron moore said months ago that fans were going to be pissed at where this episode ends if they have to wait six months or longer to see the resolution.

This isn’t Earth, it’s ‘Terra’ like in the original BSG. They didn’t
show us any continents so it could be some other ‘class-M’
planet besides Earth. Perhaps this ‘Terra’ is somewhere
close like Alpha Centauri so the constellations still look like
they’re supposed to.

I am optimistic that all is not what it appears–because a Planet of the Apes rip-off would quickly diminish the high regard I have for Ron Moore’s work with BSG (especially if he has an underground cult worshipping a frakking a-bomb!).

Consequently, I do think that the decision to take such a huge break at this point was wrong. While this “mid-season finale” can be respected (as noted in an earlier post) it really is more of an in-between episodic break rather than an ending that gives us something to anticipate some six months or so from now.

Right now I am thinking: “Well, they certainly have their work cut out for them restoring earth to a lush paradise but it sure doesn’t seem all that interesting if there are more episodes. After all, the humans and cylons made their peace and everyone lives happily ever after.”

Okay, maybe the brief teaser suggested there are a few loose ends yet but…I am at a place now where there just isn’t much enthusiasm for a few more episodes airing months from now.

Although, I guess I would like to know who #5 is…I think its the mysterious Viper that lead them to earth in the first place (after all, why would the four be that important in finding earth just because they managed to get curious about a Viper that everyone knew was a little spooky to begin with?? :)

I kept hearing Ron Pearlman’s line about Earth from Alien 4 in my head when Adama picked up that fistful of radioactive dirt. I half expected Adama to say, “Earth…….what a $h!thole..” LOL

In all seriousness I’m glad the writers decided to go the route they did (or at least the route they appear to be going). Showing the RTF reaching Earth in a timeframe that appears to be far ahead of our own time seems far more believable than landing in the distant past.

One thing is certain: The upcoming (and final) 10 episodes will be insane.

Bad news its most likly Earth C’mon this is Galatica where pessimism rules the day, by now we should be used to the people getting their hopes dashed with monotonous regularity. The question is, is this Earth of the past or of the future, It’s very hard to say which city this is on Earth, Could even be Alantis for all we know. Ron Moore and company keep the visuals on the city to A minimum, then there is the question of what caused the destruction, looks like some type of nuclear war. What would be rude to find out is, that the Cylons, one faction of them , got to earth first and leveled the plac and hid the fact from the rest of their fellow Cylons, that would be stretch but one possibility. Remember, it has happened before and it will happen again..

51 — you mean “Razor” not Pegasus. Pegasus was the name of an ep. There is still plenty of mystery left to hold me and to those who think people won’t tune back in to see the end…think again. Who’s the fifth? When in Earth’s history are we? What happened? Where do we go from here? Why do the hybrids know so much? How is it that the final 5 have been to Earth, yet Tigh, Tyrol, Torrie and Sam have no memory of it? Who’s behind all of this? Where will it finally end?

Remember, in the recent interview (link posted in last week’s article), Olmos stated that it doesn’t end well for the humans. And Aaron Douglas stated that nothing he’s read anywhere even comes close to identifying the 5th cylon. I still have my theories on the ending, but I know and expect at least a couple more twists before we get there. If there’s one thing this show is great at, it’s keeping you guessing.

My thoughts on this are…Cylon/Humans were planted on Earth at the same time they were planted amongst the colonials. They Cylon/Humans attained positions of world power in all the nuclear enabled countries and launched those nukes at each other here on Earth at the same time the Cylons attacked the colonies.

On huge problem the show failed to address was the lack of orbiting satellites… we have hundreds or thousands of them up there. Surely they would have seen them up there, but no indication was made to such. Hmmm…..

I think this episode is great. I think I would have exploded if we had another “Galactica 1980″ althou it might have been funny to have them show up in modern day Earth and have the different military forces react to the ships entering the atmosphere.

I just watched it this morning and thought the episode was fantastic. I was not surprised about post apocalytic Earth…all the ‘this has all happened before’ stuff led me to believe that.

So for the last 10 episodes what is there to do…the remaining questions are:
– How/when was Earth destroyed
– was all of it destroyed
– are there survivors (possibly off-world)
– What’s up with the rest of the Cylon Fleet
– Who is the final cylon
– Is the cylon god a real person or entity
– Will Roslin die

The biggest question is…where does the ragtag fleet go from here? I believe they will go back to Caprica and the 12 colonies…and start over…with the Cylons, working together. Or maybe go to some new 12 planet system and start over…this has all happened before and will all happen again.

I’m putting my chips on green… that is, that plot is secondary to getting a few things done emotionally.
1) Adama gets Roslin. She probably dies just before the Fleet sets foot on the Promised Land, which may or may not be Earth. This Earth may be a red herring, or they may have to work to rebuild it. Either way —
2) Lee gets Starbuck. Now that Sam’s a Can, it’s open season on bunk hopping. Of course, Starbuck could still be Cylon #5. (It is 5s we’re playing for now, right? Somewhere there’s a warehouse chock full of Katie Sackoffs.)
3) Tigh gets 6. If this is right, it means that Cylons have learned the power of love and thus how to procreate without a big honkin’ cathedral chasing them around. (Catholic guilt, anyone?)

I love that BSG has roots in Trek. Trek was never meant to be the last word in sci fi, and neither is BSG. This is so good it will undoubtably set think-bones a pumpin’ and yield even greater fun in the stars.

None of the characters in the image will be the fifth cylon. This image is the centerpiece of the current season and it has been stated repeatedly that the clues to figuring it out are here. If you really want to try and determine who the fifth cylon is… start a list of everyone we have seen on the show and eliminate the characters in this image.

I haven’t seen many posts regarding the subject, so pardon my ignorance….

Has anyone speculated that even though they found earth post-apocolyptic….. that it is from a former era of humanity…… And the Galactical crew will wind up being OUR ancestors. Anyone realize that “Adama” could be “Adam” from “Adam and Eve?”

I haven’t seen many posts regarding the subject, so pardon my ignorance….

Has anyone speculated that even though they found earth post-apocolyptic….. that it is from a former era of humanity…… And the Galactical crew will wind up being OUR ancestors. Anyone realize that “Adama” could be “Adam” from “Adam and Eve?”

I doubt our archeologists would miss a city like the one we saw in ruins last night, Tom. Even after thousands of years, there’d be enough for scientists to look at it. Plus, you have the whole headache of a space-faring people forgettting / renouncing its technology so that they can become the forefathers of the Egyptians… or the Toltecs… or the Mayans…
Hey, I loves me the Toltecs like the next guy, but I’m just sayin’ it’s a hair on the silly side to put Adam-a et al into Mr. Peabody’s Way Back Machine and start the human race like that. Besides, remember that it was Starbuck’s tricked-out Viper and no other needle in the fleet that pointed to this Earth. Maybe it’s not the Earth we want. We’ll know in ten episodes.

Maybe Earth is like a second Kobol, and there are 12 other colonies out there. But then the Cylons they made destroyed them and they went searching for their 13th colony, then they could find the Galactica crew when they stop on the birthplace of their civilization, Earth. Then it would spin out into an endless cycle of humanity getting destroyed and searching for a home.

Seriously though, them finding Earth like that is what makes BSG so great. There are no happy endings.

Clearly your observation about archeologists is correct in a technical sense. But this is storytelling, and nothing has to be literal or concrete. The allusion is actually already there — from the original series. “Adama” is indeed a play on “Adam,” which means “Man/mankind.”

If we were simply to adhere to logic, none of them should be speaking English.

Tom —
I agree that Moore could go a philosophical or literary (Biblical) route. I just think that his emphasis is on the emotional. I think that the search for Earth and the revelation of the 12th Cylon is secondary to his desire for the characters to fulfil an emotional arc. And that’s good storytelling, too. At a certain point, there’s just nothing you can commit to film that’s mind-blowing. (See anything by M. Night Shamalamadingdong in the last decade.) You must rely on the human desire to eavesdrop on the emotional lives of others.

And if I’m wrong here, thank God these posts just go away into the ether after a few weeks, and no one will be able to hold me to accounts. (**cough cough**)

I agree with the notion that the end of the episode is in fact a future, devastated Brooklyn Bridge. I just hope this post-apocalyptic world isn’t an entree to the introduction of (rolls eyes) Count Iblis and the “Light” Beings. I really hope they finish the story they’ve started without introducing any new characters.

Perhaps they will combine the 5th Cylon and Iblis characters into some kind of super being? Again, I hope not.

I first off have to say that I love this series. I love BSG and I have probably watched it through a dozen times now since I fell in love with it a year ago and catched up on DVD.

One thing that really rubs me the wrong way though is how much RDM maligns Star Trek. Listen, I get the fact that Star Trek has been boxed in by it’s massive continuity and that Rodenberry’s vision was troublesome sometimes for taking certain characters some places and that RDM felt it was restraining but honestly I’m growing sick of it. I was listening/watching the commentary for the mini-series and RDM kept going on and on and on about how restraining working on Star Trek was and how creativily draining it was. If that was the case why did he keep doing it for years and years? I just find that to bash Star Trek really reflects poorly because it looks like he perhaps felt he was too good for Star Trek and that Star Trek held him back and if there is one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t bite the hand that once fed you…even if it was years ago. Just my thoughts

Great episode!! Was Jamie Bamber ever considered to be the new Kirk??? I championed his cause almost two years ago. After watching his very Kirk like Shatnerian standoff with Xena I thought to myself goddamn that’s Captain Kirk!!!!!! Don’t know how Chris Pine will be but I do know Jamie Bamber would have been great!!!

#68 – Visit Ron Moore’s blogs on Sci-Fi Channel’s web site. Itw been mentioned there frequently as well as in interviews at the beginning of the season with all the major press outlets. Its there if you want to take the time to find it. The final cylon DOES NOT appear in this image.

The blog’s should be searchable or even google it. So search for references to BSG, Last Supper, image, Ron Moore and 5th Cylon and you should hit a number of times where he’s has repeated this.

They did not in fact find Earth, the reason is simple, the prophecy concerning Laura Roslyn, that she would not live to see Earth. This also ties into the prophecy concerning Kara Thrace, that she would lead them to their destruction and I think she may have done that in a manor of speaking.

#90 – And you know they haven’t forgotten that with the appearence of Roslyn’s spiritual advisor making an appearence a few weeks ago. By the same token, its entirely possible now that Roslyn has opened herself up to be able to love someone that it may be a possible way of putting her cancer back in remission. Its a reach I know… but stranger things have happened in real life.

Considering she’s read the final script… something happens to allow her to be there for the arrival.

I’ve now watched “Revelations” twice, and I agree with Anthony and others that it was simply fantastic. Exceptional acting (again) — Edward James Olmos broke my heart in Adama’s breakdown — and Apollo finally found his place and kicked a**. The emotion of finding Earth was incredible. Bear McCreary again outdid himself with an amazing score (how wild to hear a choir for the first time). I certainly suspected they would find Earth by show’s end, and while the apparent nuclear winter wasn’t a total surprise, the impact was not diminished one bit.

Sorry if I missed it above, but did anyone else notice the ruins of the temple from the book of Pythia as the camera panned to the bridge?

There is SO much story left to tell, as others have noted. I mean, someone sent that signal via the Viper . . . and they have so many personal stories to resolve. Thank God my first book is coming out this fall, so the next 6 months should go by quickly. Otherwise, I would go frakking insane. :-)

It’s definitely Earth, and I don’t see how anyone could not see the Brooklyn Bridge at the end there. The destruction seems ancient, or at least many, many years in the past. After all, the atmosphere seems to have recovered and the soil wasn’t producing a terrific amount of radiation.

I think Laura is standing in for Moses, therefore she won’t step foot in the Promised Land.

My thought is that they landed on the duplicate of the Earth on the far side of the Sun..as depicted by Gerry and Syvlia Anderson. They only have 200 million miles to go and they will find the source of that weird radio transition..none other than Bob Dylan himself!

I agree Commodore Goofball! What a jip. Bloody spoilers spoiled the shock of the end of Revelations.
Still damn cool though, and by far and away the greatest sci-fi show yet to be screened (cinema or TV).

To all you doubters out there…it is Earth, it has to be. It has to be an old apocolypse due to the geiger counter and if you noticed, all the rubble from the buildings were highly weathered and smooth. This can only be achieved by the passing of time (and the wonderful world of SFX!).

i thought for ages that it would be Adama for most of the last 2 seasons till No 3’s statement that only 4 were in the fleet.
Its so bloody confusing. Did this mean that it could be Adama because he wasn’t actually with the fleet at that time or that the final cylon was on Earth?

I love the Billy angle Blusilver7. My wife and I have always thought that Billy was a toaster until his unexpected end.

Still think its Adama though. He’s passed a lot of strange comments lately, you, know “you’re not the same man Saul” etc.

I was certainly hoping that it was “Terra” as well and that they completed the nuking of each other instead of Galactica blowing the nukes up….that would follow the story line of the original BSG very well in the way new BSG does things. I mean Kara’s viper does connect with the “light ship”. If you remember, their clothes turned white when it appeared…..Of course if it is Earth, all the have to do is warp around the sun, go back in time and voila, all problems solved….:-)

Well, that was a wonderful episode. There were certain things I noticed: we never saw any actual continents (of course, it the Earth had been nuked several thousand years ago, the continents would have shifted anyway. What about the Moon? Wouldn’t a huge natural satellite have been noted? Also, the final five were all in the fleet at one point. Now there are only four. Maybe Cally Tyrol was the fifth.

Her erratic behaviour prior to her suicide attempt and her murder could have been because the trigger worked incorrectly on her! There was a reference to ‘terrible pain’ which led to people assuming the fifth was Gaeta. But Cally would have experienced excruciating pain when she was airlocked!

We still have the Opera House to come up. Maybe there is an opera house somewhere on Earth, where the Hera/Baltar/Six/Athena/Roslin chase will happen.

Baltar is supposed to be the guardian of the children of the Cylon/Human race. And did anyone notice the reference to (I paraphrase): ‘In order for children to reach their full potential, their parents have to die?’

In which case perhaps the Cylons and Humans have to die in order for the new hybrid Cylon/Human race to live…

Other possibilities include: maybe there’s another threat that the Humans and Cylons have to face together. Maybe the 13th Tribe themselves are the biggest enemy. And maybe the music trigger is a distress signal.

. . . food for thought over the next six months . . .

Aaron Douglas said they’re still filming. Let’s hope we get all three TV movies. I’d like to see the return of Nico Cortez as young Adama and maybe a younger actor playing Tigh in his war years.

The Colonials examine the ruins, discover how old they are and that they predate the founding of Kobol ( the supposed homeworld of humanity) by several thousands years thus coming to the realization that Earth, not Kobol, was the true origin of man. They may stumble upon some old piece of still functioning technology (like the Guardian of Forever) that wold give them a clue as to what transpired.

Long ago some great calamity caused the people of Earth to flee to the stars( war, plauge, asteroid collision, take your pick). The group that settled on the planet that would later be known as Kobol had a falling out with the others ( so great that in essence they said “Frack all of you!! We’re so mad at you were not even going to acknowlegde that we are Earth people. We’ll be Kobolans from now on”). So thus the history they passed down to their decendants made no mention of Earth, except as some long lost colony that they only bothered to mention in their religious texts.

Sorry, I had to stop mid-sentence, I was running late for work. Anyway to continue…

So the other Earth colonies wanted to check on how there Kobol bretheren were fairing but considering the bad blood that exisisted between the factions they didn’t want to just drop in on them unannouced. So they decided to send in observers. Probes. With advanced data and communication abilites. They would be able to communicate over vast distances and have the ability to transmit there accumilated knowlegde to a central repository (“downloading”) (this would make them somewhat similar to Questor, from that unsucessful Gene Roddenbury piloit for the Questor Tapes) They would design twelve models, one for each of the twelve Kobol offshoot colonies; this is the key point, the original programmers wanted there to be only twelve, not twelve hundred or twelve million, just twelve.

So What Happened?

Perhaps some of the original human-form probes came into contact with those renegade Cylons after their defeat in the first Cylon war and though this interaction their programming was altered and their directives were changed (just as how Nomad’s programming was altered after its contact with an alien probe, transforming it into a genocidal maniac). Some went off to live with and eventually dominate the emerging Cylon society (“The Significant Seven”) while the rest remained true to their original purpose and went on to the Colonies (“The Final Five”)